Latest South Africa News
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Crossing the language barrier
Every thinking white South African must have at least toyed with the idea of learning to speak an African language. Few, however, have made the effort. Now it seems their children will be learning one. The department of basic education said this week it finally intends to make an African language compulsory in all primary schools, perhaps as soon as next year. Last week, the University of ...
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PetroSA boss iced Thabos boys
Former acting PetroSA chief executive Yekani Tenza faces tough questions over his role in the allegedly irregular awarding of a R720-million contract for a gas drilling project off the south coast of South Africa. After Tenza made a case against it, a bid by a company seen as close to former president Thabo Mbeki's administration was sidelined. Instead, PetroSA offered the contract ...
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PetroSA suspends top exec after R1bn scandal
Ghana deal . The Hawks police unit is investigating PetroSA, and a probe by the Central Energy Fund, its holding company, is said to be ...
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Cosatu hesitant about Fridays e-toll protest
"We are still trying to get a decision on whether it will go ahead legally," spokesperson Patrick Craven said in Johannesburg on Thursday. "We are just waiting for a decision." By 5pm, the Cosatu had failed to get permission for the drive-slow, planned for Friday. "Authorisation has not been given," said Johannesburg Metro police Chief Superintendent Wayne ...
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Zuma says no to dropping his name
However, Zuma stopped short of calling for action against those who name-drop. "We call for vigilance and urge all our officials who are entrusted with managing state institutions not to succumb to pressure from name-droppers," the president said on Thursday. "They should immediately report to their superiors and to law enforcement agencies, anyone who behaves in this ...
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Mapisa-Nqakula honours two unsung CAR heroines
13 soldiers who died in clashes with the Seleka rebels in March, the South African government on Thursday highlighted civilian Susette Gates and medic Alphina Moletana Nkoana. The two women got a special mention from Defence Minister Mapisa-Nqakula while she delivered her department's budget to Parliament, for their bravery during the battle of Bangui. Mapisa-Nqakula told Parliament how ...
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Under-fire minister attacks killer MPs
Nosiviwe Mapisa-Nqakula said on Thursday. She made the accusation during a heated debate on her budget vote in the National Assembly. "At a time when some of you were conducting raids and maiming and killing women and children in the frontline states, I was there in the trenchesfighting for liberation in this country," Mapisa-Nqakula said, pointing at opposition party benches. She ...
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Kleinfontein segregation not about race
Kleinfontein - The Afrikaners-only community Kleinfontein outside Rayton, east of Pretoria, insisted in a debate with the DA on Thursday that the criteria for its residents were not based on race. The community, which has existed for 21 years but came under the media's spotlight this week, merely wanted to live out their values in seclusion, said controlling body chairperson Jan Groenewald. ...
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Dept must pay up over teacher axing
Johannesburg - The Northern Cape has been ordered to compensate a teacher fired for refusing to alter a pupil's marks, the education department said on Thursday. "Indeed, as the department, we have received the award regarding this case," provincial spokesperson Sydney Stander said. According to a statement by Solidarity, the Education Labour Relations Council (ELRC) ruled that ...
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Ministry worries over police gang links
Johannesburg - Reports of collusion between police and criminals in the Western Cape are a serious allegation, the police ministry said on Thursday. "Should they be proven true, they could compromise and derail efforts of crime reduction, not only in the Western Cape but the whole country," spokesperson Zweli Mnisi said in a statement. The department was responding to a report that ...
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11-year sentence for Kruger trespassing
Johannesburg - A man was sentenced to 11 years imprisonment by the Nelspruit Regional Court on Thursday for trespassing and carrying out a restricted activity in the Kruger National Park. Abel Mfana Mashabane, 26, from Phalaborwa, pleaded guilty to charges of trespassing in a designated area, after he and his friends were caught walking through the park at Houtboschrand on 17 May 2012. Mashabane ...
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Initiation a touchy topic in Mpumalanga
Kwamhlanga - In Mpumalanga's Nkangala district, where 30 initiates have lost their lives so far this winter, ritual circumcision, known locally as Ingoma, is a taboo subject. After meeting the grief-stricken Motsepe family whose son, Collen Modisha, 16, died at an initiation school in Verena, a Sapa correspondent visited the local police station to find more cases and possibly arrange to ...
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South African Miners Demand Salary Increases
Pretoria, May 23 (Prensa Latina) The National Union of Mineworkers of South Africa has demanded a wage increase of 15 percent for employees and skilled miners who work both underground and on the surface, local television published today. The request, which implies a minimum salary of 7.000 rand ($ 750 USD) for gold and coal miners, increased the fears that the strikes spread to the rest of the ...
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Avoid repeat of Waterkloof incident - SACP
Johannesburg - The SA Communist Party has urged the state to avoid a repeat of the landing of a private jet at the Waterkloof Air Base, it said on Thursday. "The SACP notes the release of the report of the investigationThe SACP urges all relevant state agencies and departments to conclude the necessary actions in relation to disciplinary actions and strengthening our control measures to ...
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Mthethwa selects heads of firearm inquiry
Johannesburg - Police Minister Nathi Mthethwa has appointed the people who will head an inquiry into firearms, his department said on Thursday. The minister's spokesperson Zweli Mnisi said Soraya Hassim and Advocate Rams Ramashia were selected to head the investigation that would probe non-compliance of the Firearms Control Act. Hassim currently practised administrative law that dealt with ...
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KZN health to restart cancer machines
Durban - Two state-of-the-art radiotherapy machines used to treat cancer patients, will be operational again soon at Addington Hospital in Durban, the KwaZulu-Natal health department said on Thursday. Health ...
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Hummer driver to learn fate soon
Pretoria - The Hummer driver who crashed into three motorcyclists, killing two and causing a third to lose a limb, will be sentenced later this month. Pretoria North Regional Court Magistrate Ben van Schalkwyk said on Thursday Zambian national Indi Himalindi Chiyabu would be sentenced on 31 May. Submitting evidence in aggravation of Chiyabu's sentence, prosecutor Tanya Carstens called for a ...
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Opposition MPs ‘killed for apartheid’
Parliament, Cape Town - Men in opposition benches were part of the apartheid-era army that maimed and killed people, Defence Minister Nosiviwe Mapisa-Nqakula said on ...
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Minister salutes CAR heroines
Cape Town - Two women stole the show in the National Assembly on Wednesday for their bravery during the March battle between SA soldiers and Central African Republic (CAR) rebels. Opening debate on her Budget Vote, Defence ...
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Cops didnt help victims inquiry hears
Dali Mpofu , for the arrested and injured miners, asked whether police were not trained to help injured people or give first aid. Mpofu played footage taken on 16 August, when police shot dead the miners at Lonmin's platinum mine. The footage shows officers searching those lying down and later standing around the scene. In response, national police ...
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Lucas elected new Northern Cape premier
Sylvia Lucas was officially elected and sworn in as new premier, said a legislature official on Thursday. "She will deliver her inaugural speech on 30 May 2013," said Mpho Marina, spokesperson in the Speaker's office. Former ...
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Former tax official jailed for fraud
Johannesburg - A former senior official of the SA Revenue Service (Sars) was sent to prison for 15 years by the Western Cape High Court on Thursday Edmund Fredericks was found guilty of racketeering, fraud and forgery. While working for the receiver, Fredericks developed a scam that cost Sars R1.3m. In 2006, Fredericks and an accomplice, Aaron Carelse, would submit false VAT claims, using ghost ...
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Mothers testify at fitness test inquiry
Pietermaritzburg - Two mothers whose sons died after a fitness test in KwaZulu-Natal testified at a commission of inquiry in Pietermaritzburg on ...
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Hummer driver irresponsible - State
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Court rules against magistrates on pay
Johannesburg - President Jacob Zuma's decision to increase the salaries of regional magistrates and regional court presidents by 5% and not 7% remained in place after a Constitutional Court judgment on Thursday. The court dismissed an application to confirm an order of the North Gauteng High Court in Pretoria that set aside Zuma's decision. The Independent Commission for the ...
Johannesburg Focus
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Security and Soccer in the City of Gold
In 1991, on the 11th of February, South Africa celebrated an immense moment of change as Nelson Mandela walked free from prison, then on the 25th of June 1995, the Springboks defeated the All Blacks and South Africa became the winners of the rugby world cup. These two events were indicative of the country’s potential, especially when set against the pessimism of the public and the global community at large.
South Africa has become a country used to exceeding expectations. When the ANC came to power in 1994 many South Africans expected violent reprisals, the 1994 genocide in Rwanda did nothing to allay these fears and South Africans flocked in numbers to the greener pastures of Australia, but the massacre never came, the reprisals never occurred, the white-owned property was never confiscated by the government. Read more
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